Factor This

Tell us what you think of the show! It was a best-of-times, worst-of-times sort of year for solar: long-awaited federal policy support tempered by ongoing trade disputes involving some of the industry’s biggest suppliers. As the year closes, giving new meaning to the term ‘solar coaster,’ we invited Paula Mints, who has been tracking the industry for more than two decades, to shed some light on what 2022 means to the solar industry and what to watch out for in the new year. She joined Episode 29 of the Factor This! podcast to break down everything from the Auxin Solar petition to the Inflation Reduction Act and to discuss the industry’s path forward amid mounting headwinds.Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! When the American clean energy industry met at RE+ in September, seemingly every conversation exuded an optimistic tone about the future. Historic incentives for clean energy in the Inflation Reduction Act, paired with a generational industrial policy, brought U.S. climate goals within reach at a point when their prospects appeared bleak at best. Now, billions of dollars of investment is flowing into American clean energy manufacturing. The outlook couldn't be more different in Europe, where industry leaders recently came together at Enlit Europe in Frankfurt, Germany. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated an already dire energy crisis, and the continent that once led the energy transition is watching its influence slip. Two of Europe's clean energy leaders joined Episode 28 of the Factor This! podcast from Frankfurt to discuss Europe's path forward and the prospect for transformational industrial policy. Guests:Jochen Hauff, Director Corporate Strategy, Energy Policy & Sustainability, BayWa r.e.Axel Thiemann, CEO, Sonnedix Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter. Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! Clean energy is in broad agreement: the Inflation Reduction Act is a game-changer for the industry and our goals of staving off the worst effects of climate change. But underneath the optimism is a shared anxiety that significant headwinds still plague the industry. Costly and time-consuming permitting and interconnection processes remain poison pills for projects. On Episode 27 of the Factor This! podcast, we introduce you to two climate tech entrepreneurs who are taking on these challenges. Robin Laine, CEO and co-founder of Transect, used her background as an environmental engineer to shrink the environmental assessment process down from weeks or months to just minutes. James McWalter, CEO of Paces, is developing what he calls the "Google for site selection," which allows developers to start with a set of criteria, like distance to an interconnection point, to find available parcels for development in just minutes. The platform also tracks ever-changing policies that could impact projects all the way down to the local level. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! After a series of starts, stops, and outright confusion over the future of rooftop solar, California regulators have released their latest proposal to reform the state’s net metering program. The process known as NEM 3.0 has pitted advocates against investor-owned utilities over how customers should be paid for sending excess solar power to the grid. And since it involves the country’s largest solar market, the entire industry is paying attention. Vote Solar’s executive director, Sachu Constantine, returns to the Factor This! podcast to break down the latest proposal, which is drawing fire from both sides. Check out Constantine’s analysis of the original NEM 3.0 proposal in Episode 6 of the Factor This! podcast.Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! A look around one of clean energy's largest events offered a common sight: There were a lot of men.  The challenge is well-known in renewables. Women make up only about a third of the workforce. And they hold an even smaller share of executive positions. On Episode 25 of the Factor This! podcast, three senior female executives weigh in on how to effectively recruit women to clean energy.Guests:Julia Bell, Chief Commercial Officer, CleanCapitalCarey Kling, Director, BQ Energy DevelopmentJenn Miller, CEO, Renewable IPPFactor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Registration is now open for the GridTECH Connect Forum, a new event bringing together distributed energy developers and utilities to tackle the critical issue of interconnection.Join us in San Diego on Feb. 6, 2023 for an event focused on the California market, like interconnection collaboration, vehicle-to-grid integration, demand response, and more.Learn more at GridTECHConnect.com.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! It's been more than 600 days since the lights went out for millions of Texans during Winter Storm Uri. The near-total collapse of the Texas grid can be attributed to a number of culprits— and there has been no shortage of finger-pointing. Promises were made that what happened in February 2021 would never happen again. And a market redesign that's underway is supposed to be the solution. To better understand what's happening, and what's to come, Episode 24 of the Factor This! podcast features Texas Capitol mainstays Caitlin Smith of Jupiter Power, Mark Stover of Apex Clean Energy, and Doug Lewin, host of Renewable Energy World's Texas Power Podcast. Show notes: -Check out the "Don't California my Texas (electricity market)" episode of the Texas Power Podcast for a deep dive into a highly-anticipated report on the three electricity market redesign proposals.-Read the ICF report commissioned by the Texas Consumer Association Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! Bringing new distributed energy resources to the grid often comes with delays and costly upgrades. Interconnection woes create a contentious relationship between utilities and developers.That’s why Clarion Energy is launching the GridTECH Connect Forum— a regional event designed to break down industry silos by bringing together DER developers and utilities to find common ground to improve the interconnection process. Registration is now open for the inaugural GridTECH Connect Forum in San Diego, California on Feb. 6, 2023. To learn more, be sure to download Episode 23 of Factor This! featuring GridTECH Connect Forum advisory board members Laurence Abcede, manager of distributed energy resources at San Diego Gas & Electric, and CJ Colavito, the vice president of engineering at Standard Solar. Show notes: -Learn more about GridTECH Connect Forum -Follow the GridTECH Connect Forum on Twitter and LinkedInFactor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! More than a decade ago, the proverbial lightbulb glowed over Chad Farrell’s head. Trained as a brownfield remediation engineer, he decided to develop solar projects on otherwise unusable land. His company, Encore Renewable Energy, became a first-mover in brownfield solar development, boosted by federal incentives.Fast forward to today, and Farrell sees an even brighter future for brownfield solar project development due to another big chunk of federal help: the Inflation Reduction Act.On Episode 22 of the Factor This! podcast, Farrell shares how the IRA is impacting brownfield and energy community project bankability, and lays out the challenges that still remain. Sponsor:-This episode of Factor This! is sponsored by Rolls Battery. Find a distributor near you.-Registration is now open for the GridTECH Connect Forum, an all-new event designed to bring utility leaders and clean energy developers together to tackle interconnection issues. Register today. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! The market for procuring clean energy is enduring one of the most tumultuous stretches in history. A global pandemic, trade disputes, and federal policy near-misses over the past two years contributed to fears that either side of a power purchase agreement was getting a raw deal. That volatility added pressure on developers, investors, and corporations pursuing net-zero goals.But historic incentives for clean energy baked into the Inflation Reduction Act have shifted the industry’s trajectory, backed by the certainty of 10-year tax credits. What impact is the IRA already having, and what’s in store for 2023? Gia Clark, senior director of developer services for LevelTen Energy, joins Episode 21 of the Factor This! podcast to provide a first look at her company’s Q3 PPA Price Index report and insights from their PPA marketplace.Show notes: -LevelTen's Q3 PPA Index (available Oct. 18)-Episode article-Learn more about GridTECH Connect ForumSponsor: This episode of Factor This! is sponsored by Rolls Battery. Find a distributor near you. Factor This!  is produced by Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy. Connect with John Engel, the host of Factor This!, on LinkedIn and Twitter.Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Tell us what you think of the show! We're happy to share with you the first episode of Renewable Energy World's newest podcast, the Texas Power Podcast.In each episode, Doug Lewin guides listeners through the complicated world of Texas energy, introducing them to the people and policies behind it all. In Episode 1 of the Texas Power Podcast, host Doug Lewin is joined by Pat Wood, former chairman of both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. He helped deliver former Texas Gov. George W. Bush's deregulation agenda in the 1990s.Doug's conversation with Pat Wood covered the state's market redesign efforts, the enabling technologies that can support grid resilience, and the moment when then-governor Bush was first drawn to renewables.If you like the Texas Power Podcast, please leave a rating and review! The Texas Power Podcast is a production of Renewable Energy World and Clarion Energy.You can connect with Texas Power Podcast host Doug Lewin on Twitter and LinkedIn.  Show notes:-Episode article-Subscribe to the free Renewable Energy World newsletter Want to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com